1. Magnetostatics – Surface Current Density
A sheet current, K (A/m2) is considered to flow in an infinitesimally thin layer.
Method 1: The surface charge problem can be treated as a sheet consisting of a continuous point charge distribution.
The Biot-Savart law can also be written in terms of surface current density by replacing IdL with K dS
Point charge
Important Note: The sheet current’s direction is given by the vector quantity K rather than by a vector direction for dS.
Method 2: The surface current sheet problem can be treated as a sheet consisting of a continuous series of line currents.
Line current

2. Magnetostatics – Surface Current Density
Method 2: Example
Example 3.4: We wish to find H at a point centered above an infinite length ribbon of sheet current
We can treat the ribbon as a collection of infinite length lines of current Kzdx.
Each line of current will contribute dH of field given by
The differential segment
I=Kzdx
The vector drawn from the source to the test point is
Magnitude:
Unit Vector:

3. Magnetostatics – Surface Current Density
To find the total field, we integrate from x = -d to x = +d
We notice by symmetry arguments that the first term inside the brackets, the ay component, is zero.
The second integral can be evaluated using the formula given in Appendix D.
Infinite Current Sheet

4. Magnetostatics – Volume Current Density
Current and Current Densities:
Linear current I (A)
Surface current density K (A/m)
Volume current density J (A/m2)
J (A/m2)
The Biot-Savart law can also be written in terms of volume current density by replacing IdL with Jdv
For many problems involving surface current densities, and indeed for most problems involving volume current densities, solving for the magnetic field intensity using the Law of Biot-Savart can be quite cumbersome and require numerical integration.
For most problems that we will encounter with volume charge densities, we will have sufficient symmetry to be able to solve for the fields using Ampere’s Circuital Law (Next topic).

5. Magnetostatics – Ampere’s Circuital Law
In electrostatics problems that featured a lot of symmetry we were able to apply Gauss’s Law to solve for the electric field intensity much more easily than applying Coulomb’s Law.
Likewise, in magnetostatic problems with sufficient symmetry we can employ Ampere’s Circuital Law more easily than the Law of Biot-Savart.
Ampere’s Circuital Law says that the integration of H around any closed path is equal to the net current enclosed by that path. H
The line integral of H around a closed path is termed the circulation of H.

6. Magnetostatics – Ampere’s Circuital Law
Amperian Path: Typically, the Amperian Path (analogous to a Gaussian Surface) is chosen such that the integration path is either tangential or normal to H (over which H is constant) .
Tangential to H, i.e.
(ii) Normal to H, i.e. H
The direction of the circulation is chosen such that the right hand rule is satisfied. That is, with the thumb in the direction of the current, the fingers will curl in the direction of the circulation.

7. Magnetostatics – Ampere’s Circuital Law Application to Line Current
Example 3.5: Here we want to find the magnetic field intensity everywhere resulting from an infinite length line of current situated on the z-axis .
The figure also shows a pair of Amperian paths, a and b. Performing the circulation of H about either path will result in the same current I. But we choose path b that has a constant value of Hf around the circle specified by the radius ρ.
In the Ampere’s Circuital Law equation, we substitute
H = Ha and dL = ρda, or

8. Magnetostatics – Ampere’s Circuital Law
In electrostatics problems that featured a lot of symmetry we were able to apply Gauss’s Law to solve for the electric field intensity much more easily than applying Coulomb’s Law.
Likewise, in magnetostatic problems with sufficient symmetry we can employ Ampere’s Circuital Law more easily than the Law of Biot-Savart.
Ampere’s Circuital Law says that the integration of H around any closed path is equal to the net current enclosed by that path. H
The line integral of H around a closed path is termed the circulation of H.

9. Magnetostatics – Ampere’s Circuital Law
Amperian Path: Typically, the Amperian Path (analogous to a Gaussian Surface) is chosen such that the integration path is either tangential or normal to H (over which H is constant) .
Tangential to H, i.e.
(ii) Normal to H, i.e. H
The direction of the circulation is chosen such that the right hand rule is satisfied. That is, with the thumb in the direction of the current, the fingers will curl in the direction of the circulation.

10. Magnetostatics – Ampere’s Circuital Law Application to Line Current
Example 3.5: Here we want to find the magnetic field intensity everywhere resulting from an infinite length line of current situated on the z-axis .
The figure also shows a pair of Amperian paths, a and b. Performing the circulation of H about either path will result in the same current I. But we choose path b that has a constant value of Hf around the circle specified by the radius ρ.
In the Ampere’s Circuital Law equation, we substitute
H = Ha and dL = ρda, or

11. Magnetostatics – Ampere’s Circuital Law Application to Current Sheet
Example 3.6: Let us now use Ampere’s Circuital Law to find the magnetic field intensity resulting from an infinite extent sheet of current.
Let us consider a current sheet with uniform current density K = Kxax in the z = 0 plane along with a rectangular Amperian Path of height h and width w.
Amperian Path: In accordance with the right hand rule, where the thumb of the right hand points in the direction of the current and the fingers curl in the direction of the field, we’ll perform the circulation in the order
Ampere’s Circuital Law

12. Magnetostatics – Ampere’s Circuital Law Application to Current Sheet
From symmetry arguments, we know that there is no Hx component.
Above the sheet H = Hy(-ay) and below the sheet H = Hyay.
The current enclosed by the path is just
Equating the above two terms gives
A general equation for an infinite current sheet:
where aN is a normal vector from the sheet current to the test point.

13. Magnetostatics – Curl and the Point Form of Ampere’s Circuital Law
In electrostatics, the concept of divergence was employed to find the point form of Gauss’s Law from the integral form. A non-zero divergence of the electric field indicates the presence of a charge at that point.
In magnetostatics, curl is employed to find the point form of Ampere’s Circuital Law from the integral form. A non-zero curl of the magnetic field will indicate the presence of a current at that point.
To begin, let’s apply Ampere’s Circuital Law to a path surrounding a small surface. Dividing both sides by the small surface area, we have the circulation per unit area
Taking the limit
If the direction of the S vector is chosen in the direction of the current, an. Multiplying both sides of by an we have

14. Magnetostatics – Curl and the Point Form of Ampere’s Circuital Law
The left side is the maximum circulation of H per unit area as the area shrinks to zero, called the curl of H for short. The right side is the current density, J
So we now have the point form of Ampere’s Circuital Law:
Field lines
A Skilling Wheel used to measure curl of the velocity field in flowing water
Divergence
curl

15. Magnetostatics – Stokes Theorem
We can re-write Ampere’s Circuital Law in terms of a current density as
We use the point form of Ampere’s Circuital Law to replace J with
This expression, relating a closed line integral to a surface integral, is known as Stokes’s Theorem (after British Mathematician and Physicist Sir George Stokes, ).
Now suppose we consider that the surface bounded by the contour in Figure (a) is actually a rubber sheet. In Figure (b), we can distort the surface while keeping it intact. As long as the surface remains unbroken, Stokes’s theorem is still valid!